


Sucker Punch

by Cephied_Variable



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-29
Updated: 2011-03-29
Packaged: 2017-10-17 08:49:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/175074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cephied_Variable/pseuds/Cephied_Variable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"We spend out entire lives chasing after a single moment,"</i> Rose warned him once, <i>"But that is no way to live."</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Sucker Punch

**Author's Note:**

> Originally [written](http://community.livejournal.com/homestuck1000/1653.html?thread=4981#t4981) for [homestuck1000](http://community.livejournal.com/homestuck1000/1653.html).

_"We spend our entire lives chasing after a single moment,"_  Rose warned him once. "But that is no way to live."

Dave Strider is not an idiot and he does not need Rose to point it out to him. Shit, he knows what he's doing.  _He knows_ \- Jesus Lalonde it does not take a double-major in Literature and Psych to know that street-fights and hole-in-the-walls and bleary drunken states are not a good place to pick up guys. It doesn't take two years into a Masters to know that his philosophy of not sleeping with a guy who can't kick his ass is a little fucked up.

 _"Thing is I throw all the fights,"_  he explains but she's just all:  _I know, I know but that's not the point, Dave. The point is that it is not healthy for you to be substituting adversarial conflict for real affection._ After that she's usually all,  _Look, I understand this. I understand what you are going through and I made many of the same mistakes in my first few relationships. I felt like I always had to have the last word, that I constantly needed to be in control. But Dave- just because we gave our childhoods to the game does not mean that we need to play these roles for the rest of our lives. I don't need to live in my mother's impeccable shadow any longer._

The nice thing about Rose is that she's learnt some delicacy over the years and she always stops just short of the sucker-punch. She never quite draws that line of logic with Occam's Razor precision- she leaves it there, awkward threads hanging loose at the edge of her seam and she picks and picks and picks but Dave knows that his sister has no desire to see what happens when the knots unravel.

What happens when the knots unravel is that Dave is back to the cement, a line of blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. He can taste it on his teeth and he laughs as he staggers back up, his opponent's face flickering with worry.

"Come on -" and Dave adjusts his shades with a shit-eating smirk. "You can do better than that."

"Dude, what the fuck." The other guy's fists are down now, running a hand through his unwashed hair. "Look, not like I ain't down with a little rough play but you're just-"

"What? Think that just because I take it from behind I was gonna be a pussy about this? Didn't think I was serious when I asked you to fight me? Yeah, the Big Man here, knocking back jack at a punk show and thinks he has the rock, think that he threw the paint downtown. Can't fucking believe that goldilocks here is kicking your ass."

Dave knows what buttons to push, what cranks to pull. Valves, mechanisms, doorknobs- what the fuck ever. He spent half his life living and breathing posturing machismo; he can see the cracks and he knows just how to pry them open. It doesn't take much. In fact, it's really fucking pedestrian. "Come on pansy-" he spits blood. " _Fucking bring it_."

What happens when the knots unravel is Dave at eight years old with his arm in the school nurse's hand, her lips pinched downwards like a weighted laundry line as she circled each bruise with a lacquered nail.

"These aren't from the other kids," she'd noted with concern but Dave puffs out his cheeks in a pout and says:

"Whatever."

 _Whatever, lady don't even_  because years spent lying to child services gives you a dulled tongue and a sharp mind. They ask all the wrong questions, too. They never ask about the puppets or the swords on the wall. They check the fridge but never wonder at Dave's unusual musculature, way too defined for a kid. Just unreal, man. They sit him down and ask him shit about sexuality that's vague and all kinds of awkward and Dave's response is never  _jesus I read 4chan you idiots_ ; it's feigned shock and a boyish, "Ick." and a resolute "I know nothing about that." because he's not stupid and he knows that the moment they think Bro touched him, he's never going to see him again.

But what happens when the knots unravel is a dusty evening with red shadows cast across the roof and Dave shaking down to his bones as Bro yanks him to his feet by his collar.  _"Come on, l'il man, you can do better than that."_  so Dave just tosses his sword aside and tangles his fingers in Bro's shirt. He misses his lips the first time, but gets them with teeth the second and its all kinds of desperate and sick and  _goddammit don't let your kid read 4chan_  until Bro shoves him away, shades askew and shoulders all hunched up ready to spring, primed to abscond. This is the first time Dave's seen his eyes.  _It's the first time_ and what he sees there is wild eyed shock and  _regret_  and he can't even open his mouth to say,  _"I won this one."_  Because he did. He won and it's not worth the bravado. That vulnerability was all he ever wanted.

So yeah. 

Dave Strider fucking knows what he's doing. And what he's doing is taking another goddamned punch.


End file.
